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Weaving is never not binary. Yet, such a definition is reductive, ignoring a multitude of factors involved in weaving and excluding people whose lives are written outside the binary. In the spirit of transcending weaving beyond the binary, this program will bring together Indira Allegra, Jovencio de la Paz, and John Paul Morabito, queer artists working at the intersection of weaving and contemporary art. Through presentations on their work and an open discussion, the artists will explore the embodied, ontological, and rhizomatic nature of weaving and expand the practice into a space for queer polynary thinking.
Meet The Speakers
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Transdisciplinary weaver John Paul Morabito engages queerness, ethnicity, and the sacred through the medium of tapestry reimagined in the digital age. They approach weaving as an ontological practice through which blasphemy, devotion, the incarnational spirit of Catholicism, the decadence of drag, and the impossibility of queer grace are bound as resonant sensibilities within their opulent tapestries. Morabito has exhibited at international venues including Patricia Sweetow Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); the Zhejiang Art Museum (Hangzhou City, China); the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, NC); the Bakersfield Musuem of Art (Bakersfield, CA); CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions (San Francisco, CA); Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects (Long Island City, NY); Document (Chicago, IL); the Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines, IA); the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS); the Center for Craft (Asheville, NC); and the John Michael
Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI). Their work is represented in public and private collections including the Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec (Montréal, Canada) and the Textile Resource Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL). Their writing has been published in Art China, The Textile Reader 2 (China Academy of Art), The Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, Textile: Cloth and Culture, and Surface Design Journal. Morabito is a 2024 United States Artists Fellow. They hold a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Morabito is Assistant Professor and Head of Textiles at Kent State University School of Art. John Paul Morabito is represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.
Indira Allegra is a conceptual artist and founder of Cazimi Studio. Cazimi Studio uses weaving as a framework to creatively transform tension within different sites. The studio is unique in its emphasis on performance, publication and the integration of spiritual care as preferred design solutions. Allegra’s work has been featured in The Art Newspaper, Artnet, Art Journal, BOMB Magazine, SF Chronicle, All Arts and ARTFORUM and in exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY); Center for Craft Creativity and Design (Asheville, NC); John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI); Gray Area (San Francisco, CA); the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA) and San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles (San Jose, CA) among others. Allegra’s writing has been featured in Theater, TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture, American Craft Magazine, Panorama Journal, Leonardo and Material Intelligence among others. They have been the recipient of numerous awards including the Burke Prize, Creative Capital, United States Artists Fellowship, Gerbode Choreographer Award, Art Matters Fellowship and CripTech Metaverse Fellowship. indiraallegra.com | cazimistudio.space |
@indiraallegrastudio
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Jovencio de la Paz (b. 1986, Republic of Singapore) lives and works in Eugene, Oregon. Jovencio received a Master of Fine Art in Fibers from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (2012) and a Bachelor of Fine Art with an emphasis on Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008). They have exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, NY; the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles; Cranbrook Museum of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI; R & Company Gallery in New York, NY; Vacation Gallery in New York, NY; The 2019 Portland Biennial at Oregon Contemporary in Portland, OR; The Museum of Craft and Folk-art in Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, CO; Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea; The Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR; The Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Uri Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, Slash Gallery in Seattle, WA; the 2024 Immigrant Artist Biennial in New York; the ICA at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA; among others. In 2022, de la Paz was awarded the prestigious United States Artists Fellowship for their significant contributions to the field of weaving. They are represented by Chris Sharp Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Jovencio de la Paz is an Associate Professor and Head of Fibers at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon USA.
*All Lectures in this series will be guest moderated by artist, educator, and cultural worker, Pato Hebert.
Dates & Times
Queering The Loom – Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, 5 – 6:45 pm ET
Crafting Queer Identity – Thursday, July 18th, 2024, 5 – 6:30 pm ET
Fashion as Performance – Wednesday, July 24th, 2024, 5 – 6:30 pm ET
Location
Zoom, a link will be send to participants the day before each lecture
Recording
All sessions will be recorded. Following the live session, a link to each recording will be emailed to all those who register. Each recording will be available for one month following the live session.
Tuition
Tickets for this event are sold on a sliding scale beginning at $15 with a suggested donation of $25, but if you wish to pay less or more than the suggested donation, you may select a different amount from the drop down menu. As always, we are grateful for your support, which ensures the continuation and preservation of textile knowledge. Thank you for making this series possible.
Tatter Library is a registered 501(c)3. Our speaker series is part of our community programming and proceeds support the continued success of our talks with artists, scholars, and historians we admire. For this event, all ticket proceeds will go towards keeping this series alive.
Scholarships
Scholarships are available for the full series. Please email [email protected] to request the scholarship application form.
Images in order of appearance:
John Paul Morabito, For Félix (scarlet like the memory of you inside me), 2023
Indira Allegra, BODYWARP: Doublecloth, 2017
Jovencio de la Paz, Warped Grid, 2022